The ship's Solars are an alternative power source. They are meant to function as a backup or supplement, and generally cannot power the entire vessel on their own. Solar panels will usually generate a couple hundred kilowatts total, but this number can vary greatly.

The SEV Torch has three solar panel arrays. Two small ones are located on Deck Two, directly port and starboard from the Engineering Foyer; both are accessed via the maintenance tunnel. One large array is located on the Bridge, spanning across the roof of the vessel; access it via the maintenance hatch near Auxiliary EVA.

Setup

Setting up the solars is an easy process, and requires no special gear. The SEV Torch's solar arrays come pre-wired, so no EVA or wiring is required to set them up. You will need access to Engineering facilities.

Go to the access room, marked with a yellow Engineering airlock.

Use the Solar Control Console.

Click "Search for devices".

Set Tracking to "Auto".

The solars should now begin generating power. If they don't, that's fine, it's probably just because the star is oriented the wrong way. Bad luck. Go try another solar array.

Use the SMES. For now, just enable the input and set it to MAX. Most engineers will leave the output disabled until the solars are charged at least part-way.

Later you may want to fine-tune these settings, or keep the output disabled to save it in case of power loss. It's up to you.

Repeat this process for the other two solar arrays, assuming they haven't been done already.

That's it, you're done! Tell the Engineering team that you started up the solars.

Note: This process is performed entirely via computers and machinery, so it can be done by a cyborg. The AI can also set up Deck Two solars very quickly; however, there are no cameras in the Bridge solar room, so it cannot interact with the computers there.

Catching Solar Rays

As the Torch moves throughout the far reaches of space, its orientation toward the nearest star changes. Even when the Torch isn't going anywhere, it is typically in a slow orbit around some object and, technically, still "moving" in that respect. For simplicity, these effects have been translated in-game so that the star's rays rotate around the Torch once every 5 minutes or so.

Because of this movement, it is important to note that the ship blocks sunlight! Because the solar arrays are set to track the star as it moves around the Torch, every once in a while they will be turned directly at the ship and produce 0 W of power. As the sun continues to move, the arrays catch more and more rays until they are all charging again. Keep these things in mind when planning how to charge the solar SMES and how to distribute that power around the ship.